She swimmingly lapped up the conditions in Launceston in just her second return home since relocating north to Brisbane two-and-a-half years ago to further her prodigious career in the pool.

“It’s better here than Brisbane at the moment,” Titmus said of the weather contrast between the states. “It’s very cold at the moment up there.”

Titmus was all smiles amid a Junior Dolphins clinic on Saturday, gazing out to little faces smiling right back.

So it was not hard then to reflect on her time in that same Launceston pool.

“I started out first doing swimming lessons and clinics just like this,” she said. 

“It goes to show that no matter where you come from and what you do, you can one day become a champion.

“This might give a little insight to some kids if I can share with them what it would be like to be an elite swimmer whether that is something they want to do.”

It wasn’t sunnier climes that convinced dad Steve Titmus to pack up the family life in May of 2015, but a lot has happened other than just his daughter losing the braces on her teeth.

A world championship medal for one the most recent. The bronze in the 4x200m freestyle relay followed just missing another in the 400m freestyle during a fourth-place world finish.

“Tassie, as a young swimmer, was great, where I made heaps of friends and it was a really sociable sport that gave me a good start,” she said.  

“I definitely think to take it to a next level, you have move from the state.

“After seeing our regionals today, it was a bit of a shock to the system how much the sport has changed since I left.

“Compared to racing in Queensland that I am exposed to, it feels a vastly different level to what we have.

“So if you have talent and want to pursue it, sadly to get where I’ve got, if I hadn’t left, there would be no way I’d be on the Australian team.”

Titmus now calls six-time 2017 world championship medalist Emma McKeon, even one-time world record holder and sprint queen Cate Campbell good friends.

But she’s far from pinching herself from her new reality. 

“It’s amazing that I am a normal 17-year-old that goes to school and I am exposed to racing the best in the world,” Titmus said.

“I know what I’ve achieved is because I’ve trained hard.

“I’ve worked for it – none of it is just through chance. I deserved to be where I am.”

The focus is very much down the Gold Coast road to the Commonwealth Games.

But when Titmus makes that first splash, there’ll be another state cheering on.

“It’s just so humbling to have all that support back here,” she said, “and though I am in Brisbane now, it’s cool to have another home support and they still claim me.”